


The Night The Lights Went Out In Ohio

by RavenpuffWrites



Series: Beauty and the Mermaid [1]
Category: Glee
Genre: AnderBros, Gay Bashing, Other, Sadie Hawkins Dance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 12:03:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17446604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenpuffWrites/pseuds/RavenpuffWrites
Summary: On May 1st, 2009 Cooper Anderson got a call that would change his entire life.





	The Night The Lights Went Out In Ohio

Cooper was at Warbler practice when he got the call. 

Usually, they didn’t have such late-night practices. On any other occasion, Cooper would have been waiting at home for Blaine to arrive, assuming, of course, his brother had been able to talk him out of waiting in the parking lot all night. 

Maybe if Cooper hadn’t been at school, things would have turned out differently. 

But as it was, Cooper was at Warbler practice because Dean Windsor had asked the Warblers last minute to perform at the open house happening that weekend, apparently thinking she had asked them to do so shortly after they lost Regionals, but the council swore up and down they had no memory of it (They still all jokingly blamed Wes, which probably at least in part accounted for practice being scheduled well into the night).

They were in the middle of the only break they had finally convinced Wes to give them when Cooper’s phone lit up with Blaine’s name, and without hesitation he pressed answer, bringing the phone to his ear as the twins quickly shushed the rest of the boys, and those who had deemed themselves the Marauders gathered closer, all excited to hear about Blaine’s first school dance. 

The smile Cooper had been wearing when he picked up the phone disappeared almost instantly when instead of Blaine, he was greeted with a cold, unfamiliar voice. 

“Am I speaking to Mr. Cooper Anderson?” 

In the background, Cooper could hear the sounds of sirens, of people talking over one another, and his throat went dry as he quickly answered “Y-Yes, that’s me. Who is this?” 

“Mr. Anderson, I’m a paramedic with the Westerville Medical Campus. You were the emergency contact in the phone we recovered from one of our patients.”

_ Recovered _ . The word made Cooper feel sick to his stomach. It made it sound like someone was... dead.

“A Mr. Blaine Anderson?” 

Like Blaine was dead.

“He’s my little brother,” Cooper managed to choke out, despite the fact his throat felt so tight he could hardly breathe. “Is he okay? What happened to him?” 

“We don’t have the full details, but it seems that your brother was badly beaten up outside of his school dance alongside another boy. They’re both on their way to Westerville now, from where your brother will be taken to Columbus via helicopter.” 

“Columbus?” The word fell from Cooper’s lips before he even had time to process its significance. The gentle hand of his best friend, Evan Taylor, fell gently against his shoulder, and Cooper lifted his head to meet the concerned brown eyes as the paramedic continued to speak. 

“We don’t have the necessary resources to treat a case as severe as your brothers. He seems to have suffered a significant amount of head trauma along with several broken ribs and other bones. Columbus will be much more suited to take care of his needs.” 

“When are you taking him? C-Can I see him first?” Evan's eyebrows crinkled in concern as he and the other Warblers listened to the only end of the conversation they could hear, not sure exactly what was going on but they could all tell it was serious. 

Turning his head just slightly to look at his younger brother, Evan mouthed to Mason for him to take his keys and bring his car to the front of the building. If things were headed where they thought they were, Cooper was going to need a ride. 

“It’s important we get your brother to Columbus as soon as possible. We already have the helicopter waiting for us, and as soon as we arrive your brother will be loaded on and sent off. If you meet him at Columbus, you will be able to see him there and gain more information about his condition.” 

“Where do I need to go when I get there?” Cooper asked, closing his eyes like it would help him remember the information better. But the only answer he got was 

“We’ll have a nurse waiting for you when you arrive with more details. Get to Columbus and we’ll do the rest.” 

“Okay,” Cooper whispered, his voice soft as he tried to keep it from shaking, slowly opening his eyes once more to reveal the tears that had started forming there. “Thank you.” 

As soon as Cooper hung up, he let his head drop into his hands, and a moment later he let out a quiet sob that had the twins wrapping themselves around him on either side in a hug. They sat for several seconds in silence into finally Cooper sniffled, lifting his head to meet Evan’s eyes again.

“Blaine was attacked outside of the school dance. They’re sending him to Columbus because they don’t think they have the equipment to deal with him in Westerville.” 

Evan said nothing for a moment as he studied Cooper’s face, the tears running freely down it as the twins continued to clutch to him from either side. He turned his head slightly to meet the eyes of Wes, and when he got an affirming head nod from their leader, he turned back to Cooper and said “Come on. I’ll drive you to Columbus.” 

Evan stood up, holding a hand out to pull Cooper up beside him, and after the twins backed off the elder Anderson took it, and to his surprise, Evan pulled him first into a tight hug, which despite their height difference felt protective in a way Cooper couldn’t explain. 

When Evan eventually let go, he felt just a little bit less like his entire world had just shattered, even if just for a second, and as they walked out the doors Cooper was able to hold his head just a little higher.

Behind them the remaining Warblers gathered worriedly around the door, watching the retreating backs of the pair before they all turned towards Wes, hoping their leader had some sort of guidance for them. 

But for once even Wes didn’t have anything to say.

What could he say to a group of people who had just watched one of their strongest shatter before them? What could he say when they just learned the little brother with bright smiles and just a little too much energy they had all heard so much about, the person who was Cooper’s whole world, had been beaten so badly he was being taken off to Columbus? 

“The rest of the meeting is canceled,” Wes said finally, looking around the group of boys who surrounded him, all of them in various states of distress and worry over Cooper. Over Blaine. There was no way they would be able to continue after that news. “I’ll send out a reminder tomorrow for the performance. For now, I think it’s best if we all just go back to our dorms and try to relax. Maybe call your family if you’re close to them,”

“If we get any updates on the Cooper and Blaine situation we’ll be sure to let you know. But for now, I think the most we can do for them is just pray that things will be okay and send them our best hopes.” David added when it was clear that Wes’s dismal alone wasn’t enough to appease most of the boys. “Right now all we know is Blaine is going to Columbus, and Cooper is heading to meet him. It probably won’t be until tomorrow we get anything else.”

“Don’t spend the night alone tonight. And remind those you love how much they mean to you. Because you never know when your last chance will be.” With Wes’s final words the boys slowly began to split off, until the only ones left sitting in the practice room were the remaining Marauders. 

All it took was one look shared between the six of them to agree they wouldn’t be spending the night apart. If Cooper called, they all wanted to be there to hear it. 

“Wes? David? Your room is probably the safest if we want to head there.” Charlie said softly, lifting his head from where it had been pressed against Julius’s neck, who he hadn’t let go of since Cooper smile first fell and they knew something was wrong. “I’m pretty sure the twins room is a war zone and ours is kind of dangerous at the moment.” 

“Yeah, our room is fine.” Wes agreed after a minute, David slowly nodding his head in support. Like their entire world had slowed down now that the others are gone, every movement and every word seemed to take longer to come than the last. “We can all change and head there until Cooper calls with news.” 

But still, none of them moved even with their new plan in place. Maybe if they just stayed there a little longer they could forget the reality of what had just happened, forget that Cooper was possibly losing his only brother at that very moment, forget that the world was a cruel place that punished anyone who dared to be different and for a little while longer they could remain in the Dalton bubble where all was right with the world.

It was the sound David’s phone buzzing that finally snapped them out of their stupor. He stood up first, walking out of the room to answer a call from his older sister on the west coast where it hadn’t yet got to late, and as if it had woken them up one by one the others slowly stood up, and they followed him out the door to the dorms, where they would wait for Cooper to call them and deliver the news they would until then be anxiously awaiting.   


* * *

The car ride to Columbus was silent save for the sound of Mason rapidly texting in the back seat, answering the concerned questions coming from every Warbler, the messages of support and comfort all asking to be passed on to Cooper, which Mason saved together to pass on later when things weren’t so raw and they knew better what exactly where Blaine’s condition stood.

The only other sound was the occasional directions coming from Evan’s phone, and the quiet muttering if the eldest Taylor as he sped his way towards downtown Columbus. 

Only Cooper remained in complete silence the entire ride, staring straight out the windshield with an empty face, his phone clutched tightly in his hand just in case someone called with an update on Blaine. Every so often his eyes would flicker down to the radio, checking the time again before the returned to the road ahead of them. It had been less than an hour ago that he was singing with the Warblers, waiting for Blaine to call him when he got home safe. Less than four hours ago that he was saying goodbye for what might have been the last time. 

There was a lump sitting in Cooper’s throat he couldn’t quite swallow, and a pain in his chest that wouldn’t seem to go away. He glance at the clock again, the bright green numbers standing out harshly against the dark night. 

_ 11:03. _ They had made good time since they left Westerville, it had only been 15 minutes since they left Dalton, and yet here they were almost at the hospital. If they were lucky, they might have even beat Blaine. 

Thunder crashed above them, and the rain that had been threatening to come all night started to fall.

It was a foreboding sign for whatever was waiting behind the hospital doors. 

Evan shoved the thought out of his mind and drove just a little bit faster towards the hospital.    


* * *

Cooper only saw Blaine for a second, but it was enough that he would never be able to forget how B looked for as long as he lived.

He had been standing at the nurses station trying to get information on when his brother was coming in, on how he was doing at that very moment, when the elevators opened up, and out rolled a single stretcher surrounded by a team of frantic doctors, all of them talking over each other, yelling orders as they rushed down the hall. 

As they ran past Cooper, time seemed to slow down for just a second, his eyes locked on the patients face, and even swollen and swollen covered still in too much blood he  _ knew _ that was his brother. 

As soon as the realization hit Cooper time seemed to speed up again, and the doctors rushed past him pushing Blaine’s motionless body behind closed doors and out of sight. Cooper watched them go frozen in place a mix of horror and fear rising in his throat as the image of Blaine’s beaten and bloodied body hovered in his mind, unable to be shaken away now that he had seen it. 

Eventually, Evan walked up and wrapped an arm around Cooper’s shoulders, gently guiding the elder Anderson over to the waiting area, settling him in a chair between the two brothers. 

Cooper said nothing for a long moment. And then, as if all the energy he had left had drained from him at once, Cooper slumped forward in the chair, his head falling heavily into his hands. With his face covered, Cooper began to cry the heart wracking sobs you felt in your entire body and deep into your soul. 

The picture of Blaine was still hanging in his mind, and the only thought left swirling in Cooper’s head as a result was  _ “he looks like he should be dead.”  _

* * *

It wasn’t the first time Blaine had come close to kissing death only to be pulled back from the edge. The boy just had a way of getting himself into dangerous situations and somehow walking away with his life like nothing had changed.

When Blaine was five he fell into their neighbor's pool as he chased his friends around the yard, falling into the deep end still not knowing how to swim. Cooper had been inside helping to get snacks, and by the time the other kids had run into the house yelling about Blaine, it should have been long enough for him to have drowned. But when the adults pulled Blaine out, he just coughed up a fair bit of water, and then asked if he could go back to playing like nothing had ever happened. 

At seven, Blaine fell out of tree in their backyard he shouldn’t have been climbing on his own, and walked into the house with blood streaming from his head and plenty of other cuts across his body to match, but miraculously he hadn’t broken any bones, and even the cut on his head was mostly superficial despite the doctor noting that the height alone was enough to have been able to kill him. 

When Blaine was ten he was abandoned in the middle of the woods alone by a group of kids who claimed to be his friends, and then broke his ankle falling into a hole trying to find his way back. He was lost for almost four days in the middle of summer, with no food or water and under scorching hot temperatures. The emergency crew that found him was shocked to find that not only had Blaine’s spirit seemed to be incredibly high for someone who had been lost for four days, but he was somehow not as severely dehydrated as they had expected him to be and actually seemed to be in a decent condition considering the circumstances. 

Just last year, when Blaine was twelve, and a couple of bullies at his school pushed him out into the road just as a car turned the corner going far too fast to even see him, let alone to stop in time not to hit him. Those who saw what happened said that Blaine was somehow able to roll out of the way just in time, the tires of the car a mere inches away from where he lay in the road, going right over the spot he had initially been. 

At thirteen Blaine had been beaten up outside of his first school dance alongside his date, and left for dead, and if it hadn’t been for the fact Ethan had still been conscious enough to call his dad, it might have been hours until someone found them. 

And he had: four broken ribs from the dozens of kicks to his chest, three more that were only fractured because enough time hadn’t been put in, or maybe just not enough force. His left arm had been broken trying to protect his face and a well aimed blow had broken his nose as well. Along the back of his skull was hairline fracture caused by the force of his head hitting the ground, not enough to go all the way way through but it still dangerous. According to the doctors, it had caused swelling in his brain they were trying their hardest to treat first with medication, but if it continued to fail to respond then they would have no choice but to try surgery to drain some of the fluid. 

Blaine looked too small laying in the hospital bed, hooked up to all different kinds of machines and iv lines, all of them necessary to keep him clinging on to even the edge of life. It looked wrong to seem him laying there so entirely still, no bubbly chatter falling from his lips, no smile to be found. His hair was as wild and ungelled as ever, a rare site ever since Blaine had first learned to tame his curls in order to stand out a little less. 

It hadn’t been the first time Blaine should have been on death's door only to come bouncing back. Cooper knew that his brother had an unexplainable way of making it through situations he shouldn’t have been able to survive, they had proof time and time over of Blaine’s unexplainable luck. 

But sitting here at his brothers bedside, holding Blaine’s too lifeless hand in own and the pressing reality that at any moment another complication could develop and Blaine could  _ die _ … 

Of course he hoped that Blaine would be able to pull off another one of his death defying stunts and that somehow everything would be okay. 

But Cooper couldn’t stop the little voice in the back of his head from pointing out… it  _ was _ only a matter of time until death finally caught up to Blaine. And this could be the time he wouldn’t be fast enough to escape. 


End file.
